La. campus police overhaul technology using grants

Campus director applies for state policing grants as well as education grants to pad his department's budget

By Katie Urbaszewski
Daily Comet

Nicholls State University has had few crimes over recent years, but area residents wouldn't be able to tell that by how the school had increased its security.

It's got some of the more advanced policing tools than the Lafourche or Terrebonne sheriff's offices or Thibodaux or Houma Police, according to its director, Craig Jaccuzzo. He applies for state policing grants as well as education grants to pad his department's budget separately from the budget Nicholls allocates.

The new technology added in recent years include upgrades to officers' bulletproof vests and radios, hundreds of new campus security cameras, and computers and cameras for their police cars. One officer is even testing out a camera clipped to the front of his shirt that Jaccuzzo may issue to his whole force in the future.